Asaram convicted for raping teenager, sentenced to imprisonment till death

Sanchita alias Shilpi and Sharad Chandra alias Sharat Chandra were sentenced to twenty years imprisonment each, while Prakash and Shiva were acquitted. 

“The court convicted Asaram and he has been sentenced to imprisonment till death. His other two aides, Sanchita and Sharad have been given a sentence of 20 years each while two other accused, Prakash and Shiva, have been acquitted, ” said Rajendra Singh Charan, counsel for the victim’s family. He added that they would appeal against the acquittal of the two accused.

According to the prosecution, in August 2013, the 16-year-old victim, whose parents were devotees of Asaram, fell ill at an ashram of the godman in Chindwara where she studied. Her parents were made to believe that evil spirits had possessed her and they were advised to meet Asaram for remedy. According to official records, the parents took the minor to Asaram’s ashram in Manai, Jodhpur, on August 14, 2013, where he was residing at the time. 

During the intervening night of August 15 and 16, Asaram allegedly told her parents to go away while he was alone in his hut with the victim.

Following that, the godman allegedly physically molested her for over an hour and also threatened her against revealing anything to her parents. After she narrated her ordeal afterwards to her parents, her father went to New Delhi to confront



Asaram but couldn’t meet him. Following that, an FIR was lodged against Asaram and his aides, which was later transferred to Jodhpur, where the crime had allegedly taken place.

The accused in the case were booked under sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 376 (rape), 354A (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 509/34 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman read with Section 36 – acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC. Sections 23, 26 of the Juvenile Justice Act along with section 8 of the POCSO Act were also included in the FIR, which was lodged on August 20.

Following that, Asaram was arrested by the police on September 1, 2013, and the first hearing in the case took place on December 23, 2016. Asaram has been lodged in Jodhpur jail since 2013 and his multiple bail applications were rejected by different courts. Till date, the self-proclaimed godman has filed six such applications before the trial court, three in the Rajasthan High Court and three in the Supreme Court.

Several advocates, including Ram Jethmalani, Salman Khurshid and Soli Sorabji represented Asaram in various stages of the case. During the course of the trial, the prosecution examined 44 witnesses while the defence had given a list of 58 witnesses in the court.